I totally agree about using email not phone. I've been scammed by an essay company but got my money back from my credit card company because I could prove everything - i.e. what I'd ordered wasn't what I received and all the attempts i'd made to try and get the matter sorted.

I have used custompapers.com twice and the essays I got were good quality on both occasions. I've also used ukessays.com once and that essay was fine but the cost was high compared to custompapers.com and i felt that the standard was very similar. Another person I've used is 'BusMgtDoctor' on kasamba.com - the quality and price were good but this is a person and not a company so if she's working on other projects she won't take on extra work - she does tell you upfront though that she won't be able to give you a quote as she's too busy with existing orders so it's not like she messes you about or anything.

It actually gets worse.

"Roman Altamirano" is notorious across the web for his online fraud and has been around before in the guise of the "Global Finance Corporation", which used the same domain servers as the current essay scam company. In the "Global Finance Corporation" scam this scam people were asked to send money by E-bullion and Alertpay which would be held on deposit and then added to their account in a pyramid banking scheme; needless to say they lost their money.

Don't give them your credit card details - even if they say you won't be charged til you give the go ahead - and don't send them any money!

I agree with that. I finished high school and did one year at an American college before transferring to England. They expect a lot more from college students in England in terms of more highly developed writing skills and depth of argument - I know one US company that can produce work of that standard - if you order a graduate essay even though you only need an undergraduate paper - but 2 others I've tried wouldn't be even be remotely close to meeting the standard (maybe I just chose bad companies?!).

The other problem is like it says before, the sources issue: UK universities want primarily UK editions of books and European journals referenced. Also, the uni I'm at doesn't like online sources for essays which makes it harder to use non UK essay companies as many companies, even the good US one that I found, like to use a lot of online sources.

This, plus the fact that there are dozens are very shady essay companies operating out of the UK who outsource to India and Pakistan, makes it easier for the good companies in the UK to get away with charging crazy prices. Maybe more good companies will join the market - who knows - but the only way to find out who is good is to place an order and that can be a very costly business.

For me high school is based on one or two text book sources while a college essay should have more sources including academic journals and it should be analytical.

I'd be really worried if an essay company / its writers couldn't judge the difference between a high school essay and a college essay!

I was thinking of ordering an essay from 1stclassprojects.com - I even checked that it was a registered UK company.

When I was sent the quote they sent me the details on how to pay. That's when I got cold feet. Why would a UK company based in Liverpool be operating though a Swiss bank account? It's not like there aren't banks on every high street in Britain.

I started to take a closer look at their website and then chatted with a friend. He told me to google "essay scam" and see what came up - and here I am.

I had my doubts about this company as soon as I saw the Swiss bank account details. But I feel dumb that I didn't notice the absence of contact details on their website - all they give is email contact with the "administrator".

The Swiss bank thing was what really swung it for me. To me when I think about Swiss bank accounts I think about secrecy and hiding money - who from though, that's the question!

I won't be sending them any money.

What a brilliant site this is - it's saved me a packet!